Posts Tagged ‘Church’
The first layers of (re)Casting Vision at our beloved little Church-plant Fellowship
These are some slides that we have been going through to re-establish ourselves – affirming again who we are as a local body of believers in Jesus.
They recount our Mission:
Sovereign Christ Church exists to love God in all that we are, in all that we do, and to love people by helping them to love God in all that they are and in all that they do.
Our Vision:
SCC seeks to accomplish its Mission by living out its distinctives, such that all life is an exercise of loving God – in the heart, the home and the household of God.
Our Distinctives:
TheocentricBiblically GuidedGospel DrivenDisciple-MakingChrist-Cultural
Faithful:In CommitmentIn DisciplineFamily FocusedEldersBody LifeChurch PlantingThe HomeMenWomenWorld Engaging
SysTheo: Ekklesia – Doctrine of the Church; Angelology
Attached are the slidepacks for Ecclesiology and Angelology. Also, go to this link to read 12 Essays from the 9 Marks website:
http://www.9marks.org/answers-for-church-members/
Also:
River Valley Ranch: What’s Your Vantage Point?
I was privileged to be a part of a ministry to Middle and High-Schoolers this past weekend at River Valley Ranch in upstate Maryland, near the border of Pennsylvania. It was a pretty intense weekend called “Winter Meltdown.” It is a GGRREEAATTT weekend retreat for both the students AND the leaders and volunteers. The RVR staff takes care of everything so they can achieve their goal, which is
to provide a place free from the distractions of everyday life, where students and leaders can focus on God and build meaningful relationships with each other.
From my perspective, they did just that. I am posting my slide packs here, so if any of the youth leaders want to refer back to these, they can. Use everything at will!
If anyone needs a great camp to go to for any of several reasons, RVR is the place to be!
The Western Church is a Stepford Wife
Maybe you don’t know the premise of the story . . .
Essentially a community is designed and populated with robotic wives – perfect robotic wives, so their husbands can do what ever they want without the trappings of spousal accountability, commitment, humility, etc. It is: I create a world that appears to be like the real world, yet under the surface it is artificial . . . maybe sinister.
Remember that idolatry is really self-worship. That is, when one carves an idol, names the idol, places the idol and then decides (without the input of the idol, I might add) how the idol is to be worshipped – and yes, I’m talking about pseudo-pagan/animistic polity here – at the end of the day, who’s Creator; who’s Sovereign; who’s the real God? For the idolators, it’s themselves.
Let me lob another kernal into the popper before I get to the punch-line. It was C.S. Lewis in his The Four Loves, I think, that remarked in regards to love, that at the moment it becomes your god, it becomes your devil.
Now, with those two ideas in the hopper, let’s get back to the original. The church is messy and sometimes a mess. Why? What’s the problem? People.
Of course, they’re (we’re) the point also.
